With seven FM stations, Maine Public President and CEO Rick Schneider said the organization is the “backbone” of Maine’s emergency alert system. (Photo by Twenty47studio/ Getty Images)
Maine Public will “still be here for you tomorrow,” said the organization’s president and CEO, Rick Schneider, after news broke Friday that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be shuttering its doors due to a lack of federal funding.
The announcement came just one day after a major Senate appropriations bill omitted funding for the nonprofit that funds public media and a week after President Donald Trump signed a bill into law that yanked $1.1 billion in previously approved spending for CPB.
Schneider said while the news is not a surprise, it is still “a very sad day to see that CPB is actually taking the steps to wind down.”
He said after Congress voted to rescind previously approved public media funding, it was “inevitable, but it is still a blow to see it happening. That said, it’s not the end of PBS programming, or of NPR, or of Maine Public.”
Maine Public was slated to receive about $2.5 million in grants from CPB for the coming year and $5 million over the next two years, Schneider said, noting this amounts to 12% of its overall budget. Maine Public will now have to “figure out different ways” to plug that budget hole, he added.
Since the Trump administration first announced its intentions to claw back public media funding, there has been “an outpouring of support for local public broadcasting stations” nationally and in Maine, Schneider said.
“We are grateful for all the people stepping up now, and we will have to convince them and let them know that this is support that we will need on an ongoing basis,” he added. He also emphasized his gratitude for the listeners who contacted lawmakers in support of public media.
The state also contributes 9% of Maine Public’s budget, but Schenider explained that covers costs for the extensive network of transmitters across Maine. As the only statewide broadcaster, with seven FM stations, he said the organization is the “backbone” of Maine’s emergency alert system, coordinating with the Maine Emergency Management Agency to get alerts out that are then picked up by commercial broadcasters.
It is not yet clear what CPB’s closure will mean for the out-of-state public radio programming that is picked up by the local broadcaster. Schneider explained that local outlets pay dues to NPR, which make it possible to produce distributed programming, “but if there are less stations, or less stations that can pay those fees, we are all interconnected, and that will be hard.”
Shauneen Miranda contributed to this reporting.
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